Broken Hearts
by Darkest Raindrop
Summary: Their relationship was just starting, then Grissom had a heart attack, will he push Sara away or will he just let her love him? Won't be as angsty as it sounds. I think...


Sara paced back and forth in the living room, worried and angry that he wasn't home yet. He always called to say he was working late and now he wasn't even answering his cell. (Which was a warning upon itself because he_ always_ answered his cell.) She picked up the phone one last time and dialed the the only other person who might know where he was. The phone rang exactly three times before it was picked up.

"Hello." answered Catherine Willows.

She sounded like she'd been crying which prompted Sara to ask. "Are you okay?"

"Sara!" the way she said her name reminded her distinctly of the time Grissom had tried to ignore her. (That really isn't as bad as it sounds, Sara had the misfortune of looking very similar to their 'vic'. When she she finally saw the girls face she realized the reason for his strange behavior. I_e: asking her to do the perimeter after doing a one hour walk through, claiming there was a bad connection so as to end a phone conversation with her.._.) "God... I didn't think to call you." she sound disoriented. "Um... It's Gil..."

"Is he okay?" she asked, quickly interrupting the older woman.

Catherine exhaled loudly. "He's been better... he's unconscious right now... Uh, Gil had me down as his contact in case of emergencies. You know him, he probably forgot about it and didn't even think to change it." she laughed slightly.

Uh...yeah... Where are you?"

"Desert Palm..."

Sara heard the words heart attack and luck in the same sentence but that was all that penetrated her brain at the moment. She was half listening to the doctor, as she looked through the window of the cardiac care unit at Grissom hooked up to an assortment of machinery.

"Is he gonna be all right?" that was Nick... had he always been there?

"There was a blockage, we've removed it, but he has to change his lifestyle. Exercise, diet, rest, and he'll be on medication for quite some time." said the doctor, whose name she couldn't recall now but could remember it was something mundane like Smith or Jones. "He was lucky, it could have been worse for a man his age."

At that point she wanted to scream: _He's only 49! _She didn't, however, realizing that now was not the time to take her frustrations out on innocent doctors. She turned away, reaching for the knob, afraid that she might scream at the doctor anyway in some attempt to relieve her frustration, when the doctor kindly said. "I'm afraid we only allow two visitors at time in the CCU, you'll have to wait for one of your friends to leave."

Sara turned, fully intending to rip the poor man a new one. Nick, however noticed the fire in her eyes and placed an arm around her shoulder in some effort to calm her. He was only doing his job, he couldn't help if the rules were idiotic... well maybe they weren't but that was what she thought of them at the time. She was certain had she encounter the rule when it wasn't someone she loved behind the glass she would have seen them quite fitting. Sadly it _was_ someone she loved on the other side of that door and therefore the rule was seen as idiotic, as previously stated.

"Sir, if you wouldn't mind going in and telling our friends that Sara's here. They know that she's gonna wanna see him." If Sara didn't think of Nick as a brother she would have kissed him there and then. In fact, she was almost willing to ignore that and kiss him anyway. Good ol' dependable Nicky, that Texas drawl of his always made him seem so personable, or maybe that was because he was, in fact, a very personable person. Whatever the reason it worked on the good doctor.

Sara looked to Catherine and Warrick as they exited the room. The only reason Nick and Warrick were there before her was that they had been with Catherine when she got the call, and in the chaos that followed no one thought to inform his girlfriend that he'd suffered a heart attack.

"What happened?" she asked, looking for more than 'he had a heart attack.'

"Uh... he and Greg were processing a scene when Grissom suddenly complained that his chest hurt. Which, you know, surprised Greg because Gil isn't one to complain. Greg realized what was happening before Grissom and called the hospital, they did a whole bunch of tests and they needed forms filled out... When Greg couldn't help them they called me. Where is he anyway?" she asked, noting that the newly appointed CSI wasn't around.

"I, uh, passed him in the hallway, there. He said he was getting coffee, but I think he's afraid to see Grissom like that." said Nick somberly.

"Yeah... it's pretty hard." agreed Warrick.

"Do you want one of with you?" Nick asked when he noticed Sara heading for the door.

She shot him a thankful smile. "No thanks. I need to be alone with him."

Hard was an understatement, thought Sara as she stood in CCU staring at Gil. Here was the man she loved, her rock, her strength, lying in a hospital bed, looking pale and, dare she think it? Old. He was hooked up to a heart monitor, oxygen and an IV drip of something or other. She sank into the chair next to his bed heavily, he was the only reason she'd come to Vegas, the only reason she'd been able to last this long at her job. She was certain that without him constantly reminding her that she needed a life outside of criminalistics that she would have burned out long ago. She slipped her hand into his, careful not to move the IV needle, laid her head on lightly on the side of his bed and began to cry.

"We'll get though this." she whispered though her tears. She hoped that on some level he could hear her and understand but it was more for herself than anything else. She knew him, and right now she knew that when he woke he was going to start pulling away from her. She couldn't live without him, yes a sad statement but a true one. She just could not see her life without him. He was everything to her. "I love you."

_I'm in a hospital_. The thought came quickly as he opened his eyes to fluorescent lights. _I had a heart attack _When gotten so old? The question formed so quickly that he found himself asking; where had that come from? He looked down to see Sara asleep. She'd been crying, he realized, noting the still wet tears on her cheek. He never thought it would work with her. He never thought that he could handle a personal relationship and work. He remembered a case now, five years ago maybe, he had berated Catherine for allowing personal issues to interfere with her job.

.. . . but I don't let personal stuff interfere with my job.

Grissom, what personal stuff?

As long as he didn't get close to anyone he could stay objective, or at least that was the way he looked at it. Yet as hard as he tried he just couldn't stay away from Sara Sidle. It took him nearly five years but he realized that the feelings he had for her weren't going away. But was it fair to her? Here he was, 49 years old, after having a heart attack. . . She was only 33, she shouldn't have to worry about this. . .

"Hi." he heard her sleepy voice.

"Hi, sleep well?" he said lightly.

She smiled and sat up, wiping the tears off her cheek. "Yeah, you?"

"I've been better."

"Don't scare me like this again okay? I nearly had a heart attack." she smiled weakly. "Wouldn't that be something?"

Grissom, at a totally loss for words brought her hand to his lips. He had no idea what he wanted to say to her. "I love you. . ." He began.

"But. . ." she asked, sensing that there was a but to follow.

He stared at her for a second, slightly off balance, the way he always got when she seemed to read his mind. Then he realized that he had no but. "That's it. I love you." They could do this, get through it. In fact if anyone could get him through this it was her.

"I love you too, Gil."

To be continued...

Review and tell me if I should go on or not


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